Cell Phone for Aspies

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Today's Dilbert has a perfect one. You can call out but there is no number for anyone to call you.

LOL!

We have an early prototype at home, the telephone that goes to answer machine after 1 ring! It drives the family nuts, but I love it!

haha, my phone habits make my family crazy too. I refuse to get a cell phone and my home phone goes straight into my answering machine (I turned off the ringer) I call people back when I am able to deal with the phone or feel like it.

Sadly, I can't turn the ringer off on the main phone, but that's hidden away at the back of the house. All the others (portable handsets dotted around, my NT OH insisted on them...) all have the ringer turned off!

I do it for the same reason as you too; I often just don't feel like answering the phone. I need to make mental preparations first! I have been known to take weeks or even months to return a call...

Now that's my kind of cell phone . Pooftis, I can really relate to what you said. I actually do have a cell phone (inherited from my daughter), but I don't know where it is, and I've never actually used it. I detest the telephone. I don't answer it unless the caller hangs up and calls back immediately - that's the code I've worked out with my family and close friends so I know it's someone who really needs to speak to me.

Back in when I was in Canada, I made sure that my cell phone had caller ID for that purpose. I hate not knowing who's calling. I didn't bother getting a cell phone here in Vienna, because I'm tired of talking on the phone with people. I doubt I'll get one when I return next year.

I leave my cell phone on vibrate 24/7 so people can always reach me. If I want to reach someone and they don't answer their phone, it really pisses me off, so I figure other people would feel the same way if I did that.

My aspie cell phone neither sends nor receives calls, and it doesn't look like a phone either -- many confuse it with a jar of mayonnaise. But I know better.

This is one of the things I am working on in the process of embracing my AS: *not* doing so many things because that's what other people expect / want / require / find acceptable. Not keeping a smalltalk conversation going just because I might "look weird" or offend the other person if I fall silent or fail to respond to "Nice weather today!". Not answering the phone because someone else decided it was a good time for *them* to call.

In exchange for letting go of some of my "NT emulation" practices, I'm hoping I'll be able to be more of the quiet, sweet person I was as a child, instead of the constantly irritated, frazzled person who has too many things to keep track of and spends most of her energy wading through miniscule social events (chitchat with mothers in the schoolyard, chitchat with mothers picking up kids after playdates, chitchat with the neigbhor). I realized that I'm spending all this effort and energy outside the home with strangers, and then blowing up at home, where I feel safe -- AND where the most important people to me in the world are, the people I *most* want to be nice to.

I'm caring less and less if strangers and casual acquaintances think I'm weird or aloof or rude or whatever they might think because I'm being me. Let them think what they think; I want to save up my socializing for being with my family, instead of desperately wishing for some quiet time instead.

I have two cell phones, the first one is my main one which people have the number of and which my parents forced me to get when I went to college. And the second one is one my brother broke, but which magically started working for me again. So I carry the second one with caller id off and leave the first one at home. To be honest the only reason I carry a cell phone full stop is because I don't wear watches and I need to know the time.

I actually use the phone a lot but I have caller ID so I know if I want to answer. The reason for my phone dependancy comes from my fear of abandoment and the phone allow me to know where the people I have to have around are.

It also gives me a lifeline when I have determined I can overcome my fears and do something. So when I end up in a meltdown in the middle of a store I can make a call and someone can come rescue me from my situation and also talk me down from the meltdown. This is also helped because voices are a big stim for me and I have two people that are always available (by phone) for my emergencies. This is what has let me hold down a job and to overcome some of my larger dehabilitating fears.

I put the comic on the forum because I know so many here hate the phone and might enjoy the comic.

Y

How do I feel about the telephone?.....Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate Hate.........Whew! Now that I've got that off my chest.....

I don't think, other than when I'm waiting for my grandmother to call me right before she picks me up at my house, I've had my ringer on in two years. For one thing, I have one of those older phones with a very loud ring without volumn control. You know, the kind that you can hear....from China? So for the sake of my easily frazzled nerves, I keep it turned off and have my answering machine be my "secretary".

I had an uber NT friend who objected to this and would repeatingly invade my space to enforce her notion that I should be available to her 24/7. She refused to leave a message and would come over to my house unannounced with the excuse that she "couldn't get me", even after I told her a million times not to come over without talking to me first. If I felt like having someone over, surely I would've felt like answering in the first place. But she still refused to honor my boundaries and need for space.

Need I say that we're no longer friends?

i can't bear to be without my phones, i quite often need to contact my fiancee when i happen to be out and about, they are also ideal in an emergency, but i've not ever needed them for that, but i have them just in case, there is always someone i can talk to if i need to talk to someone, they are only a phonecall away

My phones (i'm a show-off)


this one

and


this one

I am a real show off

I LOVE my cell phone!I Love talking to new people on there,too.


-SpaceCase

I have a cell phone, but the only people that have the number are my mother, sister, and my employer. My mother will only call someone’s cell number if it’s extremely important. My sister may call once in a great while, but always just to touch base: “I’ll be late, don’t wait...” etc. And I certainly don’t mind if it’s my boss calling, as that means I get work.

My cell plan has 30 free minutes per month, but in four years I’ve never exceeded that amount. I do not answer the land line, I let the answering machine pick it up.

I’ll do anything to avoid the phone. If I can email someone, I will do it without hesitation, no matter what the nature of the message. However, even when something is very important, I often will avoid the phone and choose to deal with the repercussions of not calling instead.

I have a cellphone. It's usually off or on silent. I can't use it at work anyway.

I'm thinking about getting a silent MP3 and using it as a ringtone for some people. There are some people I just don't want to hear from!